Commentary Culture Investigations

Alaska Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola’s campaign is bankrolled by scores of deep-pocketed environmental activists engaged in what they view as an existential fight to block the very fossil fuel projects the self-proclaimed “pro-oil Democrat” claims to support as she campaigns across the red, oil-dependent state, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of campaign finance records.
Peltola, a former congresswoman challenging incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R.) in a surprisingly competitive race, has sought to distinguish herself from her party in deep red Alaska by expressing unabashed support for oil and natural gas production, the dominant industry in Alaska, which accounts for an estimated 35 percent of its GDP. Peltola is pushing an energy plan focused on expanding fossil fuel production in Alaska, and it contains just one mention of renewable energy (Peltola says she will support tax credits for solar, wind, and hydropower projects). She has also pledged to “stand up to anyone” in her party who dares to block major energy initiatives such as the $10 billion Willow Project in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, which is expected to produce 600 billion barrels of crude oil over the next 30 years. The project is strongly opposed by environmental groups, who’ve described it as a “carbon bomb” that endangers the planet.
But despite Peltola’s claims to be “pro-oil,” at least 23 prominent environmental activists and climate-focused donors have contributed nearly $100,000 to Peltola’s campaign during the first half of 2026, according to Federal Election Commission records. The list includes donors who’ve fiercely battled the very energy exploration projects Peltola promises she supports.
Most of the green donors live outside of Alaska. They include Patagonia cofounder Malinda Chouinard, who contributed $3,500 to Peltola’s campaign in April. Chouinard sits on the board of directors of the outdoor gear company, which urged the Biden administration in a 2022 letter to block the Willow Project before it brought about “truly catastrophic climate change” (the Biden administration grudgingly approved a scaled-down version of the project, citing legal reasons, which infuriated climate activists). In 2023, Patagonia took the unusual move of filing an amicus brief supporting a legal challenge against the Willow Project, saying it would devastate the environment to such an extent that it would prevent its customers from enjoying outdoor recreational activities and, by extension, harm the company’s bottom line.
During her 2023 appearance on a podcast hosted by former Bernie Sanders speechwriter David Sirota, Peltola said her ultimate goal is to bring about a transition to renewable energy as she framed her support of initiatives like the Willow Project as a necessity in Alaska, which, for the time being, remains financially dependent on the fossil fuel industry.
“Of course we all want to be on renewables,” Peltola told Sirota. “The type of jobs that Willow would provide are very impactful. About a third of our workforce is tied to oil and gas, and of course we all want to transition, of course we all want to be on renewables. But we recognize we need gap oil.”
Contributors to Peltola’s Senate campaign also include Daniel Tishman, the real estate heir and former chair of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an organization which also sued the Biden administration over the Willow Project in 2023. The Natural Resources Defense Council’s chief policy impact officer said Willow was an “illegal project” and accused the Biden administration of “green-lighting a carbon bomb” that would “set back the climate fight and embolden an industry hell-bent on destroying the planet.” Tishman donated $3,500 to Peltola’s campaign in March, and his wife, Sheryl, a prominent environmental activist in her own right, chipped in $7,000 as well.
Other notable green donors to Peltola’s campaign include Wendy Schmidt, the wife of ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who serves as president of the anti-fossil fuel nonprofit 11th Hour Project, Alida Rockefeller Messinger, a Rockefeller heiress who has used her family’s fortune to bankroll environmental advocacy organizations, and James Gamble, a senior director at Pacific Environment who has called for the transition away from all fossil fuels.
A Peltola campaign spokesman said the Alaska Democrat is not beholden to her donors.
“Mary’s record is clear: She will always put Alaska first, and no one from the Lower 48 will ever tell her how to vote or how to think,” the campaign spokesman said. “Mary was instrumental in standing up to the Biden Administration to secure the Willow project and supports creating good-paying oil and gas jobs, securing America’s energy independence, and bringing down the cost of energy for Alaska families. Mary only answers to Alaskans, and she will use every tool at her disposal to ensure that Alaskans are in control of their natural resources, not anyone from the Lower 48.”
Peltola paid herself $34,400 in campaign funds as a salary while raking in campaign contributions from environmental activists during the first half of 2026. Candidates for federal office are permitted to use campaign funds to pay themselves a salary under certain conditions.
During her service as Alaska’s lone representative from 2022 through 2025, Peltola struck contradictory positions on bills impacting Alaska energy production. In 2024, for example, Peltola served as the Democratic co-lead for the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, a bill that sought to reverse Biden-era restrictions on oil and gas leasing in Alaska. Peltola said she voted in favor of the bill in the House Natural Resources Committee, but just before the House voted on the measure, she sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues urging them to vote against the bill. When the vote came, Peltola voted “present.” The bill passed the House but did not advance through the Senate.
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Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon, an avowed socialist who has made affordability the centerpiece of her campaign, is reaping the financial benefits of a homestead tax exemption she voted against in the State House of Representatives in 2024, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of property tax records.
Florida offers two property tax exemptions for primary residences, both of which reduce the property’s taxable value by $25,000 for a combined total of $50,000 in exemptions. In an 86-29 party-line vote in February 2024, the Florida House voted to approve an amendment to the state constitution to adjust one of those homestead exemptions to the rate of inflation every year, with Nixon joining her fellow Democrats in a failed effort to reject the proposal. Voters overwhelmingly approved the measure in a 66-34 percent vote during the November 2024 elections.
Duval County property tax records show Nixon, who has served in the Florida House since 2020, is now taking full advantage of the measure she voted against to reduce her home’s assessed value by an additional $722 in 2025 and $1,411 in 2026. Those savings, which are applied automatically for homeowners who applied for homestead exemptions, are expected to grow substantially over time as inflation continues to chip away at the value of the dollar.
Nixon’s legislative efforts to block property tax relief for Florida homeowners resurface as she campaigns for U.S. Senate on a platform of tackling the affordability crisis in her state. Nixon, who joined the Democratic Socialists of America in June and is campaigning for Medicare for All, free childcare, and a national rent freeze, says on her campaign website that homeownership is out of reach for millions of Floridians specifically because homeowners in the state “now pay some of the highest insurance premiums in the nation.”
But in December 2025, just one month before she launched her Senate campaign, Nixon came out against another bill in the Florida House that would provide a tax break to Florida homeowners saddled with the nation’s highest insurance premiums, saying the measure would unjustly enrich insurance companies.
“This bill seems to somewhat incentivize these insurance companies,” Nixon told CBS News. “You’re basically looking out for them when you should be looking out for working-class families.”
Nixon won her primary in August in a shock upset over establishment Democrat Alex Vindman—an anti-Trump impeachment star—despite being vastly outspent 16 to 1. She now faces an uphill battle in an increasingly Republican Florida against incumbent GOP senator Ashley Moody, with polls showing Moody is the overwhelming favorite in the race.
Nixon is best known for her anti-Israel activism in the Florida House. In 2023, shortly after October 7, she introduced a resolution calling for a “de-escalation and ceasefire in the state of Israel and occupied Palestine,” a measure that many of her colleagues panned as antisemitic before it was rejected in a 104-2 vote. The following year, in 2024, Nixon opened her “Cafe Resistance” bookstore, which features a memorial wall honoring several black militants affiliated with the Marxist-Leninist Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, including Assata Shakur, who was convicted of murdering a New Jersey state trooper in 1973, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Nixon praised Shakur as a “freedom fighter” during a series of fundraising events for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a notorious pro-Hamas advocacy organization, in 2024 and 2025, the Free Beacon reported.
Nixon on August 26 held a campaign rally at Cafe Resistance, where she touted her affordability pledge.
“Health care funding cuts don’t care if you are a Republican or a Democrat.
 The light bill doesn’t care what gender you are. Those gas prices don’t care what color you are. Those grocery costs don’t care about whether or not you have a college degree,” Nixon said in her bookstore. “At the end of the day, we are all in a struggle together while the ultra-rich at the top create fear and division between us about our very few differences so that they can make a profit. That ends today.”
The Nixon campaign did not return a request for comment.
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CNN This Morning 9-3-26

On Thursday’s CNN This Morning, at the end of a segment pondering whether President Trump might throw Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth under the bus, host Audie Cornish took things in a very different direction, whining about how, “He very much has completely made good on his promises to focus on culture war issues in the military.” She also falsely military promotions were now reserved for whites only. She began by playing a clip of Hegseth at Quantico proclaiming: “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses,” no more “fat troops,” “No more beardos,” and adding, “at the Department of War, we do training, not trannies.” Cornish lamented that whereas, historically, the military was a leader in our country’s progress toward integration, Hegseth is now “going around saying, ‘Based on your looks, vibes, your identity, you’re out.” That was not what Hegseth said about race. He said no identity months and no DEI offices. But Cornish chose to misread that as evidence of something sinister. Stepping out of her role as host, she offered up this personal testimony: “I think that’s been very disturbing to see, certainly as a black American watching the history of the military being whitewashed, when so many people in the community actually were educated, mobilized, and came up through the US military. I don’t think I would look at this military today and be able to say the same thing. I don’t think a Colin Powell rises in this military, and that list gets even longer. I know that’s beside the point, ’cause it’s about more, but to me, like the generations that have been set back on this are, is really fundamental.” Did Cornish understand the implications of her accusation? She was saying one of two things: either Powell was underqualified and rose only thanks to affirmative action, or that Hegseth is a flat-out racist.  

CNN’s Cornish Says ‘As a Black American’ That Colin Powell Wouldn’t Have Risen Under Hegseth pic.twitter.com/ViCgfFUT70— Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) September 3, 2026

Republican Mike Dubke chose not to pick that fight. He praised the military’s record on integration, but did warn: “you can’t overemphasize on one thing and create a non-equal focus.” Integration, in other words, is not the same thing as a DEI thumb on the scale. Hegseth talked grooming, fitness, and ending the identity bureaucracy. Cornish heard: because of your identity, you’re out, claiming that, as a result, Colin Powell wouldn’t have risen. That was an ugly accusation that she failed to support, implicitly slurring Hegseth and/or disparaging Powell’s qualifications in the process. Cornish concluded the segment with a sarcastic swipe at Hegseth: “Well, we’ve certainly swung back, because now there are no beardos.” There was also recycling of a CNN graphic which showed more white generals had been either fired or forced out. 

Image

CNN via SnapStream

 Here’s the transcript. CNN This Morning 9/3/26 6:06 am EDT AUDIE CORNISH: Well, I do wanna add one more thing. He very much has completely made good on his promises to focus on culture war issues in the military. I just wanna play a couple examples. [Cuts to video]PETE HEGSETH: No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. [Transition] Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. [Transition] No more beardos. [Transition] I am authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency. [Transition] And we’re restoring the warrior ethos inside our department because that matters. [Transition] At the Department of War, we do training, not trannies. [Cuts back to live](…)CORNISH: Also, the legacy of the US military in this country is one that ended up leading on integration in some ways, right? That ended up, there’s something about calling it a meritocracy and then going around saying, “Based on your looks, vibes, your identity, you’re out.” And I think that’s been very disturbing to see, certainly as a black American watching the history of your, the military being whitewashed, when so many people in the community actually were educated, mobilized, and came up through the U.S. military. I don’t think I would look at this military today and be able to say the same thing. I don’t think a Colin Powell rises in this military, and that, that list gets even longer. I know that’s beside the point, ’cause it’s about more -MIKE DUBKE: No, it’s not besides the point.CORNISH – but to me, like the generations that have been set back on this are, is really fundamental. DUBKE: Well, we’re, we’re gonna talk in a, in a, in a minute, I think, if we get to it, the way the American people view our institutions. And it is telling that one of the institutions that actually scores above almost all the others when it comes to the government, is the military, and there’s probably some reason behind what you’re saying for that. But there’s also — that doesn’t mean that you can’t have, you know, you, you can’t overemphasize on one thing and create a non-equal focus. CORNISH: That’s true. Well, we’ve certainly swung back, because now there are no beardos. 

In addressing Jewish Democrats, Dana Nessel suggested that they should follow in the footsteps of their ancestor, Queen Esther, and “sacrifice the comfort, safety, and security, and even the very future of our own people” to support Abdul El-Sayed’s bid for the Senate. (RELATED: Abdul El-Sayed Rewrites the Meaning of ‘Democrat’ in Michigan ) 
The Spectacle Podcast hosts Melissa Mackenzie and Scott McKay criticize Nessel’s comments and offer the correct interpretation of the Biblical account of Esther. They address the antisemitism problem festering on the Left, and examine why the Jewish community still supports the Democratic Party. (READ MORE: Has Support for Israel Become Gen Z’s Scapegoat?) 
Tune in to hear their discussion!

Listen to The Spectacle with Melissa Mackenzie and Scott McKay on Spotify.
Watch The Spectacle with Melissa Mackenzie and Scott McKay on Rumble.

The Democratic nominees running in two of the most competitive House races this year, both of whom have worked to distance themselves from their activist pasts, are set to join an event hosted by an anti-police and anti-ICE group.
Manny Rutinel, the Democratic nominee in Colorado’s Eighth Congressional District, and JoAnna Mendoza, who is running in Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District, are the featured guests at a Thursday evening virtual town hall hosted by CareWins, and paid for by the MomsRising PAC, whose affiliate group, the Moms Rising Education Fund, published a blog post by a volunteer leader who called on elected officials to “close immigration detention centers” and “prohibit police and ICE from working together.” She encouraged parents to engage in activities with their children including playing with paper dolls “representing children and families held in detention,” an activity she described as “craftivism.”
The post includes an image of a paper doll she made with her nine-year-old daughter that was glued to a “letter”—a prewritten form with blanks for children to fill in—to Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), thanking him for “freeying [sic] people like Mr Abrego-Garcia,” referring to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran illegal immigrant—and accused MS-13 member and wife-beater—who last year became a liberal cause célèbre.

The MomsRising network, which includes the PAC and several dark money and advocacy groups, describes itself as an organization “working to achieve economic security for all moms, women, and families.” Yet it also has joined with left-wing activist groups like the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation to pursue left-wing causes. Across the network, MomsRising has received funding from a litany of liberal sources, including nearly $2.8 million from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, more than $4 million from Melinda French Gates’s Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, and $1 million from the Ford Foundation.
MomsRising is also a member of the Community Safety Working group, a coalition of more than 50 groups that aims to “shrink the size, scope, and footprint of policing” and pursue “non-carceral programs.” It supports initiatives like sending mental health professionals rather than police to handle mental health crises and calls to “dismantle our public safety system’s instinct to criminalize and punish, replacing it with a system that provides care, support, and healing.” Other members include the Movement for Black Lives, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, and the Bail Project, which aims to end cash bail and in at least two instances sprung offenders who were subsequently charged with homicides.
MomsRising has long aligned with such groups, calling on lawmakers in 2020 to defund the police, dismantle “the prison industrial complex,” and provide resources to communities “most harmed by systemic racism and our racist justice system.” It also pressured banks to stop financing private prisons as the chair of the Families Belong Together Corporate Accountability Committee. That coalition included the Soros-funded Action Center on Race and the Economy, which demanded that Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson (D.) cut the police budget and raise taxes on businesses, and the Rockefeller Foundation-funded National Domestic Workers Alliance, which has campaigned for legal protections for illegal immigrant workers and lobbied against immigration enforcement.
The panelists joining Rutinel and Mendoza have their own left-wing backgrounds. Alida Garcia was a Biden White House senior adviser on migration in 2021, when a record 1.7 million migrants were apprehended after illegally crossing the southern border, while Paid Leave for All director Dawn Huckelbridge has worked for numerous pro-abortion groups, including the DC Abortion Fund and a Planned Parenthood affiliate.
Rutinel’s and Mendoza’s participation on the MomsRising panel comes as the Democrats attempt to distance themselves from their past ties to left-wing causes as they try to win what are considered among the most competitive House elections this year and could determine which party controls the lower chamber.
Neither the candidates nor their fellow panelists responded to requests for comment. MomsRising and its funders also did not respond.
For Mendoza, a former political consultant with ties to Soros, it’s just her latest instance this year of her joining groups that have called to defund the police. And in 2020, she said that police reform was “just one aspect of addressing systemic racism in our nation” and that she supported “the reallocation of funding” away from law enforcement. Yet when Fox News reported on those remarks in March, her campaign said that Mendoza “has been on the record for years that police need MORE resources to do their jobs” and that “she has repeatedly stated that she does not support defunding the police.”
Rutinel is also facing accusations that he helped defund the police. As Colorado faced a $1.5 billion deficit, Rutinel voted for budget cuts to its Bureau of Investigation, its Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and a grant program that provides mental health support to law enforcement officers by 10 percent. The measure did, however, preserve Cover All Coloradans, a program that provides taxpayer-funded health care for “pregnant persons” and children who would qualify for Medicaid if they weren’t illegal immigrants. Rutinel supported a 2025 bill to fund the program, which cost $104.5 million—six times more than the original estimate.
When Rutinel was asked in a video obtained by the Washington Free Beacon why he defunded the police, he replied, “I didn’t,” then questioned why his Republican opponent, Rep. Gabe Evans, and President Donald Trump gave money to billionaires instead of “social programs that are the foundation of the American dream, like Medicaid and food stamps.”

Rutinel’s appearance alongside abortion advocates could also raise questions about his amorphous positions. His campaign website says “the government needs to respect Americans’ freedom to make our own decisions,” but Cobalt, Colorado’s largest independent abortion fund, declined to endorse Rutinel because he declined to answer its questions, a journalist for Denver’s NBC affiliate, Kyle Clark, reported while noting the Democrat’s struggles to explain his shifting views.
Rutinel has walked back his penchant for socialism and claims he no longer wants to eliminate animal agriculture now that he is running to represent a district that relies on ranching and farming. He even abandoned his vegan lifestyle and recently bit into a beef taco after seeming uncertain about what meats typically go with the Mexican staple.

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Screenshot via CBS/Snapstream

Variety’s Brian Steinberg revealed Thursday that longtime CBS News fixture Norah O’Donnell has won the sweepstakes to become — or, in O’Donnell’s case, return as — the third co-host of CBS Mornings, starting on September 8.CBS News President Tom Cibrowski told Steinberg that “we believe there is a lot of life left in morning television, and therefore we are putting our best people on the field,” with O’Donnell joining current co-hosts Gayle King and Nate Burleson to “bring relatability, credibility, experience, and knowledge” to viewers.Cibrowski added O’Donnell’s “experience and energy makes her a perfect match” for Burleson and King, who have gone through a long line of CBS correspondents or weekend hosts rotating as the third seat since Tony Dokoupil shipped out in December to anchor the Evening News.Status’s Oliver Darcy made this prediction back on August 18, considering “[s]he is a reliable hand with strong range and significant anchoring experience” and had “worked to ingratiate herself with [editor-in-chief Bari] Weiss.”For CBS morning show viewers, it’ll require little to no adjustment as, back when the show was called CBS This Morning, O’Donnell was a weekday co-host from September 2012 until May 2019, when she shifted to anchor the CBS Evening News. Steinberg explained the ratings picture as grim:CBS has long come in third behind NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” but in recent months has seen its standing in early news slip further.Season to date as of August 30, the overall “CBS Mornings” has fallen about 9% from the year-earlier period to approximately 1.7 million, according to figures from Nielsen. Both “Today” and “GMA” enjoy viewership of just under 3 million and have seen their audiences increase. The standing of “CBS Mornings” among people between 25 and 54, the crowd most coveted by advertisers in news programming, is eroding noticeably — down 20% from a year ago, to about 278,000 viewers. “Today” is off 2% to 612,000 while “GMA” is up 2% to 478,000.He praised Oprah’s best friend King and former NFL player Burleson as “strong journalists,” but emphasized, “O’Donnell brings a set of hard-news credentials that are hard to match.”Steinberg also divulged more revelations about a long-rumored change in format to the third-place program: “Look for ‘CBS Mornings’ to tamp down some of the feature segments it shows and instead dive into live discussions on important topics, says Cibrowski, who wants to bring more ‘in-the-moment’ discussions tied to the news cycle.”“He also expects both King and O’Donnell to book important newsmakers from a wide variety of fields for revealing interviews. ‘These two work non-stop to make stuff happen,’ he says. When asked how soon viewers would start seeing more of these kinds of segments, Cibrowski replied, ‘Very quickly,’” he added.Cibrowski was correct as, less than four minutes into Thursday’s show, they conducted a nearly eight-minute-long phone interview with Hillary Clinton on the passing of far-left feminist Gloria Steinem.However, Steinberg concluded with the fact that a format change was also deployed in February 2025 for the CBS Evening News with John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois co-anchoring, as there was an emphasis on deeper and longer segments and a focus on stories less tied to the day-to-day news cycle. Of course, that crashed and burned, and both were out of the job by October 2025.

When the Democratic Party has already been consumed by antisemitism, a lot of people are genuinely worried about whether Republicans will go the same way.

MS NOW/SnapStream

On Wednesday night, after Google and Apple changed the name of Lake Ontario on their respective maps to Lake America, MS NOW hosts Jonathan Capehart and Ali Velshi proclaimed their newfound love for MapQuest because of the company’s refusal to change the name of the lake to follow a presidential executive order that officially changed the name amid a U.S.-Canada trade warCapehart introduced the story in the final minutes of The Last Word, as he filled in for the crazed Lawrence O’Donnell. He began, “We have another update to a story we’ve been tracking all week long. What tech firms are doing with Donald Trump’s demand to rename Lake Ontario.”Capehart continued, “On Monday, we told you Google was first to bow to Trump, changing the name of the Great Lake on its Google Maps app for users in the United States. Then yesterday, Apple bowed to the pressure that came directly from Trump himself, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.” On Wednesday, MS NOW hosts loved MapQuest for not changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America on their app.The handoff between The Last Word’s fill-in host Jonathan Capehart and 11th Hour host Ali Velshi praised the company, as Velshi also called Capehart an “honorary… pic.twitter.com/Qgu1U2gB4P— Nick (@nspin310) September 3, 2026 To note, there was an executive order signed by Trump to change the name, which ordered the name to be changed in the Interior Department’s geographic naming service.Cpaehart then celebrated MapQuest for not changing the name of the lake on its map service: But there’s a holdout, and this company is being rewarded. MS NOW reports “MapQuest has surged in popularity after refusing to update the name in accordance with the president’s order. The app now holds the top spot in Apple’s App Store in the U.S., TechCrunch first reported.As The Last Word ended and The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi began, Velshi exclaimed, “You’re going to be an honorary Canadian for staying on top of this story. And literally every night, because of something you say, something else happens. I downloaded MapQuest today. I have to say, between you and me, I wasn’t sure MapQuest was still around. I loved MapQuest when it was all the rage.”Velshi then said the site was “back in my good books,” as he said he “grew up right near Lake Ontario.” Velshi continued, “If these guys are going to stick to the right name, I’m going to use them.”Capehart responded, “Well, right. And you know, to me, Ali, also, when I was growing up, it was Lake Ontario, and I didn’t grow up near it at all.”Velshi closed the show handoff and claimed the MapQuest decision was a matter of “truth” as he praised Capehart: “There you go. You didn’t have to have the proximity to know what the truth was.” Deadline: White House host Nicole Wallace also chimed in:“I downloaded MapQuest because everyone else seemed to have caved to the most ridiculous Trump requests. It’s one thing to ask law firms to capitulate because he’s mad at them, it’s another to rename Lake Ontario. It’s… pic.twitter.com/RklsHll8uO— Nick (@nspin310) September 3, 2026 Earlier in the day, Deadline: White House host Nicole Wallace also chimed in with support of MapQuest.She exclaimed, “I downloaded MapQuest because everyone else seemed to have caved to the most ridiculous Trump requests. It’s one thing to ask law firms to capitulate because he’s mad at them, it’s another to rename Lake Ontario. It’s just autocratic, on top of bleep and stupid.”Wallace then, laughably, segued from MapQuest love to an election fearmongering conversation with Democratic attorney Marc Elias over mail-in ballots: “What is the thing that people can do to take initiative about what the postal service is doing?”The transcripts are below. Click “expand”:MS NOW’s The Last Word and 11th HourSeptember 3, 202610:59:37 PM EasternJONATHAN CAPEHART: We have another update to a story we’ve been tracking all week long. What tech firms are doing with Donald Trump’s demand to rename Lake Ontario. On Monday, we told you Google was first to bow to Trump, changing the name of the Great Lake on its Google Maps app for users in the United States. Then yesterday, Apple bowed to the pressure that came directly from Trump himself, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. But there’s a holdout, and this company is being rewarded. MS NOW reports “MapQuest has surged in popularity after refusing to update the name in accordance with the president’s order. The app now holds the top spot in Apple’s App Store in the U.S., TechCrunch first reported.” That is tonight’s last word. The 11th Hour starts now. Hey, Ali.ALI VELSHI: You’re going to be an honorary Canadian for staying on top of this story. And literally every night, because of something you say, something else happens. I downloaded MapQuest today. I have to say, between you and me, I wasn’t sure MapQuest was still around. I loved MapQuest when it was all the rage.CAPEHART: Right? VELSHI: But, back in my good books, because I was born – not born. I grew up right near Lake Ontario. Like, to me, it’s Lake Ontario. If these guys are going to stick to the right name, I’m going to use them.CAPEHART: Well, right. And you know, to me, Ali, also, when I was growing up, it was Lake Ontario, and I didn’t grow up near it at all. [Laughs]VELSHI: There you go. You didn’t have to have the proximity to know what the truth was. Nice to see you, my friend. Thank you, as always.(…)MS NOW’s Deadline: White HouseSeptember 2, 20265:55:08 PM EasternNICOLE WALLACE: Marc, I saw Kara Swisher posting about, you know, changing DuckDuckGo to your browser up in Lake Ontario debacle. I downloaded MapQuest because everyone else seemed to have caved to the most ridiculous Trump requests. It’s one thing to ask law firms to capitulate because he’s mad at them, it’s another to rename Lake Ontario. It’s just autocratic. On top of bleep and stupid. What is the thing that people can do to take initiative about what the postal service is doing?(…)

Screenshot via ‘Ive Had It’/Snapstream

I’ve Had It co-host Jennifer Welch went on a tour de force of venom early Tuesday by, in less than 15 minutes, asserting she and her viewers care more about Vice President JD Vance’s children than he does, deemed it “Islamophobia” to call out Abdul el-Sayed’s deleted tweets about 9/11, insisted Republicans “don’t give a shit” about veterans, and smeared evangelical Christianity as “weird-ass shit” that “sexualiz[es]…children.”First, she threw a conniption over Vance blasting el-Sayed on Monday as an Islamist and murderer apologist. She claimed without evidence that it’s “total bullshit” that Vance underwent a religious transformation because his real religion is “pure Islamophobia” and “xenophobia” that “murdered” Renee Good and Alex Pretti.In response to Vance telling el-Sayed to “keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth because she’s way out of your league,” Welch falsely claimed Elon Musk did a Nazi salute on Inauguration Day and then trotted out the claim she cares more about his small children than he does: “We have to reject this brand of politics, and really, listener and viewer, we’re all fighting in these spaces more for JD Vance’s kids and for their future than he is. He’s trying to just extend this rigged system for mediocre white men like himself[.]”

🧵These were all things Jennifer Welch said today in a less-than-15-minute span.Welch argued that she and her listeners care more about Vice President @JDVance’s kids than he does…“We have to reject this brand of politics and really, listener and viewer, we’re all fighting… pic.twitter.com/4wnWPSEGdV— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 1, 2026

Next, she cartoonishly asserted leftists “have an uphill battle…because all of the media is being purchased by MAGA oligarchs” as evidenced by the CBSNews.com article about el-Sayed’s 9/11 tweets.Trumpeting the meltdown from Status’s Oliver Darcy, Welch demanded Weiss explain “why are you spiking stories left and right over at 60 Minutes” and insisted Weiss’s wife was “buddy-buddy with Jeffrey Epstein.”

Welch then said Bari Weiss is in the pocket of Jeffrey Epstein and his sex cult, arguing CBS News is run by “MAGA oligarchs” peddling “Islamophobia” against Abdul el-Sayed, whereas Muslim candidates in America represent true “universal human rights”…“And then, of course, we… pic.twitter.com/WHZhpH5G5P— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 1, 2026

She sounded a lot like someone from Q-Anon: “Why is it that MAGA is always knee-deep in covering for pedophiles?”Circling back to something from Monday, she proclaimed all el-Sayed wants is “a politics that is more empathetic, inclusive, and accepting” and that Muslims in America are seemingly the lone candidates “running on a platform of universal human rights” whereas “Christian nationalists” in the GOP want to “tak[e] away a rape victim’s right to privacy.”Curiously, she didn’t mention how Islam views women, particularly on matters such as honor killings (click “expand”):[A]ll they have left to give you is racism. They are scapegoating Abdul el-Sayed, and the fundamental difference, Bari, between you and Abdul, is one of you is a prostitute. And again, it’s not Abdul el-Sayed. There is nothing radical about not taking corporate money. There is nothing radical about wanting health care for everybody. There is nothing radical about having a politics that is more empathetic, inclusive, and accepting. MAGA is none of those things. The only thing they can offer, the American public right now, is fear-mongering, scare-mongering, xenophobia, and racism, and Islamophobia, and it has worked for a very long time since 9/11. The fundamental difference I see right now is we have a lot of Muslims in America. The Muslims that I see that are running for office are running on a platform of universal human rights. The Christian nationalists that I see running for office? Their pastors are talking about trying to repeal the 19th Amendment. They’re taking away a rape victim’s right to privacy when she goes to the doctors. So, spare all the Islamophobia.Third, she used the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to insist Donald Trump “doesn’t give a shit about the military,” and the GOP also doesn’t “give a shit” about veterans even though they’ve “propagandized us for decades” about the need to “support the troops.”

Welch then says the resignation of Army Secretary Driscoll is a reminder that Republicans have “propagandized us for decades” that they “support the troops” when they actually “treat veterans like shit” and deserve to be euthanized under the command of “untreated alcoholic… pic.twitter.com/WXUXkjQCTS— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 1, 2026

“They treat veterans like shit, and now it’s worse. Now, they’re treating active military members like shit, firing them, pushing them out, passing them over for promotion because Pete Hegseth has low T, is wildly insecure, and is a sociopath, and an untreated alcoholic narcissist. That’s the truth,” she huffed (again, without evidence).She urged Democrats to get ugly and tell voters half the country hates those who serve and/or served:Democrats attack, get your fangs out, it’s bullshit, they are liars, they don’t give a shit about the troops. It’s always been propaganda to make people feel nostalgic about the military and, you know, the United States of America is so badass in these people’s sacrifice. And they do sacrifice, the problem is, once they sacrifice and they get back here, how do the Republicans treat homeless military vets that suffer from PTSD? Over on Fox News, they call for exterminating them.Finally, Welch reacted to a clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaking about the Iran war to re-up her hatred of Christianity.In a Satanic set of comments, Welch said father-daughter dances and talk of purity is “weird-ass shit” and “the sexualization of children,” and proof “Christian nationalism — this sect of Christianity is the weirdest shit on the planet” that’s a sign they supported Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex crimes.Her evidence? House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and his daughter (click “expand”):

Finally, Jennifer Welch reupped her hatred of Christianity, saying father-daughter dances and talk of purity is “weird-ass shit” and “the sexualization of children,” and proof “Christian nationalism — this sect of Christianity is the weirdest shit on the planet” that’s a sign… pic.twitter.com/Bweu66Yj6q— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 1, 2026

This is the most worthless person on the entire planet. I don’t know that there is a more worthless American than Little Moses Mike Grindr Johnson. He genuinely has power. He is the speaker of the House. And all he does, all day, every day, is — calls Donald Trump and says, “Hey, sir, you know, what do you want me to decide today? What do you want me to defend today?” And let’s just review. Moses, Mike Grindr Johnson tells us how he and the Lord super tight. Big, big Christian. He supports war. He supports pedophilia. He supports crime. He supports corruption. He supports inequality. He supports demonizing the poor. He supports demonizing those of color. He’s the biggest judger on the planet, and that’s even before I get to the fact that the current Speaker of the House of the United States of America went to a purity ball with his 13-year-old daughter, married her, put a ring on her finger, and said, “your virginity is mine until I give it to your husband?’ That’s some weird-ass shit. Who takes their daughter to some ball and talks to her about the virginity being theirs? The Christian nationalism — this sect of Christianity is the weirdest shit on the planet, and the sexualization of children is bizarre, but it makes you understand how dismissive they can be about all of the Jeffrey Epstein stuff.To see the relevant I’ve Had It transcript from September 1, click here. 

Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico gushed in 2022 about a far-left, nonbinary transgender operative who he said inspires him to “keep going” when he’s “feeling kind of hopeless” in his far-left crusades. Talarico praised his transgender role model, Ash Hall, for rallying opposition to state bans on men in women’s sports and sex changes for children.
“The Capitol is not a safe place for a lot of marginalized people,” Talarico told the Go Behind the Ballot Podcast. “So, that’s part of the thing that keeps me going when I’m getting discouraged or I’m getting upset or I’m feeling kind of hopeless. I look at people like Ash Hall and I’m like, if Ash can do this much harder thing than I’m doing, then I have to keep going.”
Hall, who looks remarkably similar to Talarico, graduated just two years after Talarico did from the University of Texas at Austin and uses they/them pronouns. Hall works for the ACLU, according to LinkedIn, and last year won the Monica Roberts Trans Activist of the Year Award.
Ash Hall (@LGBTActivist/X)
“One of the best organizers at the Capitol is an activist named Ash Hall,” Talarico said on the podcast. “Ash does a lot of the work for the trans community in Texas and is an outspoken advocate for trans kids in particular.”
Talarico, who’s recently sought to reframe himself as a moderate on youth gender issues as he wages a surprisingly competitive Senate campaign in deep red Texas, was a hardline supporter of the transgender lobby four years ago. In the podcast interview, he accused Republican legislators in the state of “marginalizing and discriminating against” transgender children.
Hall led opposition to state legislation that prohibits boys from competing in girls’ sports and men from using women’s bathrooms. Hall also vehemently fought bills that ban sex change treatments for minors and define biological sex as strictly male or female based on reproductive anatomy. Those policies that Hall opposed are increasingly popular among Americans, according to the latest polling, and bans on sex changes for minors are now law in a majority of states. The Supreme Court last year struck down a challenge to the state bans on sex changes for minors.
On the podcast, Talarico, who has served in the Texas state House since 2018, then lauded Hall for doing great work during the “horrible debate” around a bill that “discriminated against trans kids in sports.” One of the interviewers then commended Talarico for those comments, noting that she has a nonbinary 11-year-old child and that certain legislation has caused her family to fear for its safety.
James Talarico (Go Behind The Ballot/YouTube)
Talarico, despite polls that show a tight race against the Republican state attorney general, Ken Paxton, remains under siege for prior remarks on children and transgenderism. Talarico, for example, previously said God is “nonbinary,” that the thing he loves most, excluding his family, is trans kids, and that there are six sexes.
Talarico has attempted to walk those comments back by admitting that he has “missed the mark” with past statements and that Republicans are intentionally clipping his most “cringey” comments. He also flatly claimed in June that he opposes gender transition surgeries for minors (he voted against legislation that would ban such surgeries three years prior).
Hall, Talarico’s inspiration whose X handle is @LGBTActivist, is anything but moderate. In 2017, Hall testified before the Texas state Senate, arguing against legislation barring men from using women’s bathrooms and saying that “locking us out of the bathroom” will not end “rape culture.” While that bill failed, an updated version only impacting government-owned facilities, including public schools and universities, ultimately passed last year. Hall said the new bill was “unconscionable” and would encourage “gender policing.” “This bill is bad for trans and intersex people, bad for cisgender people, bad for business, bad for public health and safety, and bad for Texas,” Hall said.
In 2021, Hall emerged as a leading voice opposing a bill requiring youth athletes to play on school sports teams that match the sex listed on their original birth certificate. In a social media post at the time, Hall described participating in 10 hours of testimony about the bill at a legislative hearing and posted a selfie with a transgender child who Hall said “cried over transphobia” during the hearing.
Hall claimed after the bill passed that just debating it caused an increase in suicide hotline calls and that it would ultimately “put the lives of our kids in danger.”
In 2023, Hall was outspoken in advocating against legislation that prohibits doctors from providing gender transition-related treatments to anyone under the age of 18, a bill that the state supreme court upheld one year later.
“Our government shouldn’t deprive trans youth of the health care that they need to survive and thrive—while offering that exact same health care to everyone else,” Hall said after the High Court’s decision. “Texas politicians’ obsession with attacking trans kids and their families is needlessly cruel.”
And last year, Hall accused the Texas legislature of attempting to “erase trans, nonbinary, and intersex Texans from public life” after it passed a bill that defines biological sex as strictly male or female based on reproductive anatomy for government recordkeeping purposes. “It threatens to further strip away legal protections that shield us from discrimination,” Hall said.
In addition to being an activist on transgender-related legislation, according to LinkedIn, Hall has worked for Texas state Democrats and on Democratic campaigns, including as a political manager for the Washington, D.C.-based LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which supports “out LGBTQ+ elected officials at all levels of government.”
In a 2022 interview, Hall disclosed having been hired as the school board organizing director by the progressive Texas Blue Action Democrats. In that role, Hall said the mission was to “defend the school board members” statewide from “conservative concerned parents who will be acting in ways that are very racist and transphobic.”
Hall was then active on social media endorsing progressive school board candidates during the following election and posted a photo while canvassing for such candidates. “Our kids deserve safe, inclusive schools where teachers can teach the truth!” Hall wrote.
Talarico’s alignment with Hall, meanwhile, puts him at odds with the majority of Americans, who increasingly support more protections for minors, women’s sports, and women’s bathrooms. According to a Pew Research poll conducted last year, 66 percent of Americans support policies that require athletes to compete on teams corresponding with their sex; 56 percent support policies banning doctors from providing gender transition surgeries on minors; and 49 percent support policies requiring people to use bathrooms that correspond with their sex, compared with just 26 percent who oppose such policies.
The Talarico campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Ash Hall did not respond to requests for comment.
The post ‘He’s One of the Best’: Meet James Talarico’s Lookalike Transgender Role Model Who Democrat Says ‘Keeps Me Going’ in Fight for Left-Wing Causes appeared first on .